Mississippi — Into the Storm

"Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the
risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches
forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off." ~
Fannie Lou Hamer

Been In the Storm All Our Lives

Before the Southern Freedom Movement burst into public consciousness,
before the media discovered "civil rights workers," Black folk in the
South endured unspeakable hardship and cruel oppression. But no matter
how vicious the repression, the fires of their resistance were never
completely extinguished. All over the South,  in ways
both hidden and public,  some courageous individuals
carried on the struggle for freedom and dignity. They were the first
to step forward and take their stand. Today, most of them remain
unknown to the public at-large; their stories are omitted from the
history books, and their deeds are absent from the monuments and
visitor centers.

To stand in for all those unsung heroes, we present these three from
Holmes County Mississippi who were exemplary  but not
unique  in their awesome courage:

Hartman Turnbow, Mileston MS. Who along with Amzie Moore first
invited SNCC to send organizers into Mississippi to fight for voting
rights.

A farmer and fiery orator, the man spoke with dancing fingers,
hands, and phrases. His words and acts inspired (and scared) many in
Mileston and all over Holmes County during the first stages of its
civil rights Movement.

In April '63 he stood up to and told the sheriff at the Courthouse
door that he and the rest of the First 14 had come to register to
vote. Firebombed by nightriders, he fired back and was arrested for
arson of his own home.
 Sue [Lorenzi]
Sojourner, from
Some People of That
Place exhibit.

OZELL MITCHELL of Holmes Co., Mississippi independent farmer
at Mileston was 58 in late '62, when he and farmer friend Ben Square
drove the 30 miles to Greenwood in Leflore Co. where SNCC (Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was holding Freedom Meetings.
Theirs was a bold act. Danger increased when they invited the young
SNCC organizers to set up a meeting at Mileston. In March '63 Mitchell
and others hid and housed the outside workers, got a Mileston church
(Sanctified) to allow meetings in their building. In April, Mitchell
and 13 others took their first organized step together: the "First 14"
drove to the Courthouse to attempt to "redish" (register to
vote).
 Sue [Lorenzi]
Sojourner, from
Some People of That
Place exhibit. Place

ALMA MITCHELL CARNEGIE of Holmes Co., Mississippi was a
66-yr-old intensely fired spirit at Mileston in 1963 when she and her
76-yr-old husband Charlie were the oldest of the First
14  Holmes's first to take an organized, dangerous
step together: to go to the Courthouse to try to register to vote.

For decades she'd gone to semi-clandestine Movement meetings around
Mississippi and had hidden 1930s farm worker organizers and 1960s SNCC
(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) workers in her home.
Important as a conscience, often too idealistic for others, she didn't
try to lead as much as to follow the right path.
 Sue [Lorenzi]
Sojourner, from
Some People of That
Place exhibit.

In 1961, from east, north, and west, the
Freedom Riders come rolling through
Mississippi to Jackson. All are jailed in Jackson, and then sent to
the notorious Parchman Prison Farm.

A few months later, local Movement leaders like Amzie Moore, Hartman
Turnbow, and others ask SNCC to send in organizers. Their task to
register voters  their mission to create a social
revolution that will transform the "closed society" and bring it into
the 20th Century.

The mixture of heroic local activists and dedicated young organizers
is explosive, and the Movement erupts into public view; first in
McComb, then Greenwood, Jackson, and Hattiesburg, and then in towns
and hamlets across the state. Resistance from the cops, the Klan, and
the Citizen Councils is fierce. But beatings, arrests, firebombs, and
murders cannot stop the Freedom Movement.

White thugs pull civil rights workers Paul Potter and Tom Hayden from a
stopped car and beat them on a downtown street in
McComb, October, 1961, during a
protest walkout by Burgland High School students.

Willy James Earl ("Freedom"), leading a meeting in song, Greenwood MS.

SNCC staff meeting, Mississippi Delta, date unknown.

"The SNCC office in Greenwood is like a front company headquarters during war-time. ...I was greeted by Annelle
Ponder, whose younger sister I taught at Spelman College. ...The Ponder girls are all tall, black-skinned and beautiful.
Annelle has been in Greenwood this past year handling SCLC's part of the voter registration project. She has been beaten
by police in Winona, Mississippi. When friends went to the jail one day, they found her sitting there, her face swollen
and marked, barely able to speak. She looked up at them, and just managed to whisper one word:
'Freedom."  Howard Zinn,
The Movement

Studying the Mississippi voter
application before going down to the courthouse to try to
register.

Greenwood, 1963. Attempting to vote. Note cop (left) and White Citizens
Council operative (right) with cameras. The photos are used to convince
employers and landlords to fire and evict any Black who dares try to vote.

Hattiesburg, MS. Trying to register (click
here for text of the notice on wall).